Credit management for electronic brokerage system

ABSTRACT

An anonymous trading system (FIG.  1 ) identifies the best bids and offers (QuoteSubmit, FIG.  3 ) from those counterparties (WS A 1   a   1 ) with which each party (WS A 1   b   1 , WS A 1   b   2 , . . . WSA 2   a   2 ) is currently eligible to deal, while maintaining the anonymity of the potential counterparty and the confidentiality of any specific credit limitations imposed by the anonymous potential counterparty. To that end, each bid or offer (QuoteSubmit, FIG.  3 ) for a particular type of financial instrument is prescreened by the system for compatibility with limited credit information (for example, a one bit flag indicating whether a predetermined limit has already been exceeded) and an anonymous “Dealable” price ( 24,26 ) is calculated for each of the traders (WS A 1   b , . . . WS A 2   a ) dealing with that particular financial instrument.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This is a division of application Ser. No. 09/563,461, filed May2, 2000, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/169,884,filed Oct. 12, 1998, which is a continuation of application Ser. No.08/665,594, filed Jun. 18, 1996, which has issued as U.S. Pat. No.6,014,627, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/324,843,filed Oct. 18, 1994, now abandoned, which is a continuation of Ser. No.07/830,408, filed Feb. 3, 1992, which has issued as U.S. Pat. No.5,375,055, each of which is incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The present invention relates generally to a electronic brokeragesystem having a communication network connecting traders dealing infinancial instruments, and more particularly to a computerized systemfor distributing anonymous price quotes on a selective basis inaccordance with previously established credit limits.

BACKGROUND ART

[0003] Reuters' published European patent applications EP 399 850, EP407 026, and EP 411 748 disclose an automated matching system foranonymous trading of foreign currencies (or other financial instruments)in which a single host computer maintains a central data base consistingof all the trading instruments available for trade, credit information,and the various bids and offers that are present throughout the system.The host computer uses the information in its central data base to matchactive bids and offers (as well as executing any transitory “hit bid”and “take offer” transactions) based on matching criteria which includethe gross counterparty credit limit between counterparties to apotential matching transaction, price, and available quantity. To thatend, each client site establishes and may subsequently vary or reset acredit limit for each possible counterparty, which is used by the hostcomputer to establish the gross counterparty credit limit for eachpossible pair of parties and which is equal to the minimum of theremaining credit (initial credit limit less any applicable transactionsthat have already been executed) from the first party to the secondparty and from the second party to the first party. The host computerblocks completion of an otherwise eligible matching transaction betweena given pair of potential counterparties when the transaction has anassociated value in excess of the applicable gross credit limit. In thatsystem, the various client site computers (keystations) merely maintainand display a restricted subset of the information available at thecentral computer, such as a predetermined number of the best bids andoffers, and communicate credit and other transaction orientedinformation to the host computer for execution. However, in an attemptto preserve the anonymity of the parties, the client sites do not haveaccess to any credit limits set by their possible counterparties, oreven to the identification of any other party to a particulartransaction until after a transaction has been completed.

[0004] Thus, in the known prior art system, confidential counterpartycredit limit data is maintained in real time and utilized as part of thetrade matching process by a central host computer. As a consequence,each client site has no way to determine, prior to committing to buy orsell at a displayed price from one or more anonymous counterparties,whether it is in fact eligible to respond to any of the bids or offerscurrently being displayed. The client site is connected to the centralhost computer by telecommunication lines; the host computer is not underthe direct control of the party providing the confidential credit limitdata and thus provides potential opportunities for unauthorized accessto the credit information, even though the host computer does notutilize the credit information until a match has been found between aBuyer and a Seller.

[0005] Consequently, unless he attempts to execute a trade at the bestprice currently displayed on his screen, a trader using the prior artanonymous matching system has no way of knowing whether he has creditwith, and is willing to extend credit to, the anonymous counterpartyoffering (bidding) the best price currently displayed on his screen andthus whether any attempt to buy or sell at the displayed price will besubsequently invalidated by the system for lack of such credit.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0006] It is an overall objective of the present invention to provide ananonymous trading system which can identify the best bids and offersfrom those counterparties with which each client site is currentlyeligible to deal, while maintaining the anonymity of the potentialcounterparty and the confidentiality of any specific credit limitationsimposed by the anonymous potential counterparty.

[0007] To that end, each client site preferably provides the system withonly limited credit information for each potential counterparty (forexample, a one bit flag indicating whether a predetermined limit hasalready been exceeded) and each bid or offer for a particular type offinancial instrument is preferably prescreened by the system forcompatibility with that limited credit information before calculating ananonymous “Dealable” price for presentation to any of the tradersdealing with that particular financial instrument.

[0008] In a presently preferred embodiment, the prescreening is a simplecheck to determine whether any credit remains between the two possiblecounterparties to the potential transaction, and thus may be performedusing a simple yes/no Preauthorization Matrix before any bid or offer istransmitted to a particular client site.

[0009] In accordance with a preferred embodiment, such PreauthorizationMatrices are maintained at each of several regional nodes (“distributionnodes”) of a distributed processing communication network, with eachsuch distribution node being connected by corresponding individualpermanent links of the network to those client sites (“access nodes”)for which it is responsible for distributing market informationincluding customized “Dealable” bid and offer prices in addition toglobal “Best” prices.

[0010] More particularly, in the preferred embodiment, the sensitivecredit limit data indicating how much credit a particular client site iswilling to extend to each possible counterparty is maintained only at anaccess node associated only with that particular client, and only asimple yes/no indication of whether the entity (for example, a trader, aTrading Floor, or a bank) associated with that particular access node iswilling to transact business with a particular counterparty istransmitted to the other nodes of the communication network.

[0011] To further limit the data received and processed by each of therelevant regional node computers, (ie, the distribution nodes closest tothe particular site and/or closest to the particular counterparty), onlychanges in the credit state between a particular access node and aparticular counterparty (ie, credit is no longer available or credit isnow available) are transmitted to the distribution nodes, and any creditstate information only relevant to transactions between two client sitesboth associated with other distribution nodes, may be altogetherignored.

[0012] In a preferred embodiment of the system as currentlycontemplated, if either of the two applicable limits has not alreadybeen exceeded between a particular pair of counterparties, the systemdisplays the entire bid or offer as a “Dealable” transaction, butpermits each client site to block any above-limit portion of anyresultant buy or sell transaction during a subsequent dealexecution/verification process. Alternatively, possibly at the option ofthe party by or for whom the low limit has been set, the entiretransaction could be executed, or the entire transaction could beblocked. As a second alternative, the Preauthorization Matrix couldindicate whether sufficient credit remained to execute a predetermined“standard” deal amount in addition to, or instead of, a mere indicationas to whether any credit from a particular potential counterparty hadalready been used up. In such an alternate embodiment it might also bepossible to display to each trader two “Dealable” prices: one at whichat least the predetermined “standard” amount is available, and a secondprice at which only a “Small” amount may be available.

[0013] As currently contemplated, each of the regional nodes transmitsboth a Best current price (for which a predetermined minimum quantity isavailable independent of any credit constraints) and a best Dealableprice (for which at least limited credit is presumably available on abilateral basis with at least one of the counterparties making the bidor offer), as well as a “Small” indicator that may indicate a thinpotential market in which that predetermined minimum quantity is notavailable at any price from any counterparty with whom the trader iseligible to deal, but nevertheless a smaller quantity is available fromone or more of such eligible counterparties. In determining whether sucha predetermined minimum quantity is available, the system may considercomposite deals from more than one Maker or at more than one price, inwhich case the displayed price is preferably the least advantageousprice included in the best such composite deal. In an alternativeembodiment, the system does not take into account such composite dealswhen displaying a price, but still identifies the oldest quote at thebest price as a potential match, thereby giving the traders the benefitof any price advantages for smaller sizes.

[0014] In accordance with another aspect of the preferred embodiment, atleast the first Maker having an open quote that is displayable as the“Best Dealable” or “Regular Dealable” at any of the other Trading Floorsis automatically alerted that his bid (offer) quotation is the Bestprice available to at least one potential counterparty with whom mutualcredit exists, and thus could be hit (taken) at any time. Similarly, atleast if the quoter's bid (offer) quote is not currently the first Bestquote at at least one Trading Floor and is thus subject to immediatelybeing hit (taken) by a trader at that Trading Floor, he is preferablyalso alerted if his quote is “joined” (ie, equal to in price, but laterin time) to such a “Best Dealable” or “Regular Dealable” price fromanother Trading Floor.

[0015] Preferably, in accordance with another aspect of the invention,the system also determines whether a Quote has been “bettered”; that isto say, no longer qualifies as a Dealable quote (or joined to such aquote) at at least one potential counterparty. In that case, at thetrader's option, the system will automatically cancel such a betteredquote.

[0016] In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention, thedisplayed Dealable price (unless accompanied by the “Small” indicator)is valid for at least a predetermined minimum quantity (which, as notedpreviously, may be a composite of small sizes from more than one source,or which always reflects a regular size from only one source, dependingon system design tradeoffs and/or the trader preferences) and onlyprices and not quantities are displayed. However, assuming that the BestDealable price for a regular quantity is greater than the best Smallprice, each trader may optionally select which of the two such Dealableprices is displayed.

[0017] When a “buy” or “sell” is made for a quantity in excess of thecumulative applicable credit limits associated with the counterpartieshaving open quotes equal to or better than the displayed price and thusthe completed transaction is for a cumulative quantity smaller thandesired by the trader, the trader preferably then has the option of“working the balance” (in which the system automatically generates abid/offer for the difference).

[0018] In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention, changesin the Dealable price and specifics of any subsequent transactionsinitiated by the trader are optionally vocalized electronically by thetrader's terminal and provided to the trader in audible form, togetherwith succinct details of any subsequent transactions. For example:Whenever there is a change in the Dealable “Buy” price, the leastsignificant digits of that price are electronically converted to textwhich in turn is converted to digital speech using conventional speechsynthesis circuitry.

[0019] The above description refers to the processing and distributionof data as though they were instantaneous processes; it will beappreciated by those skilled in the art that some delay is inherent inthe type of system described, and that as a consequence, the informationavailable at a particular processing node does not always reflect themost current information available anywhere in the system. However, atleast in a preferred embodiment, any such delays in the display ofDealable price information may be kept within acceptable limits bytransmitting only changes over the communication network, by usingseveral processing nodes operating in parallel to compute the Dealableprice information for different Trading Floors and/or differentcurrencies, and by providing dedicated communication links between eachprocessing node and its associated Trading Floors.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0020] Other objects and features of the present invention will beapparent from the following description of a presently preferredembodiment taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0021]FIG. 1 is an overview of the Communication Network and the variousworkstations and processing nodes associated therewith;

[0022]FIG. 2 depicts the trader's Buy/Sell display;

[0023]FIG. 3 depicts the trader's Quote display;

[0024]FIG. 4 depicts the Trader Profile Display;

[0025]FIG. 5 shows the flow of messages in the communication networkwhich are used to generate and distribute Dealable price information toeach individual trader;

[0026]FIG. 6 depicts a Preauthorization Matrix; and

[0027]FIG. 7 is a functional flowchart showing how the Dealable price iscomputed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0028] In the described embodiment, the trading system is an electronicbrokerage system having a communication network for facilitating thebuying and selling of large blocks of foreign currency by traders eachassociated with his own Workstation (“WS”) located at a Trading Floor ofa subscriber bank (“client site”). As shown in FIG. 1, the tradingsystem includes a plurality of trading floors 1 which communicate witheach other via a centralized bid distribution system 2. Each tradingfloor has one or more work stations WS which communicate with thecentralized bid distribution system 2, and thereby the remaining tradingfloors 1, via a market access node or a “MAN”. As will be described ingreater detail below, the centralized bid distribution system 2 ispreferably a distributed system of computers including one or moremarket distributors MD and one or more arbitrators ARB. The primarypurpose of the centralized bid distribution system is to determinebilateral credit between counterparty trading floors and distribute bidsand/or offers to the trading floors as a function of this determination.The centralized bid distribution system 2 determines bilateral credit asa function of unilateral credit information sent by each trading floor 1to the centralized bid distribution system 2. This determination is madeanonymously in that none of the trading floors 1 know which of theremaining trading floors 1 is extending credit to it until a trade ismade. Each of the MAN's is controlled by a Floor Administrator for thetrading floor. The MAN's maintain transaction records, credit limits,and other confidential information originating with its associatedTrading Floor. The WS's and the MAN associated with each Trading Floorare connected via a conventional self-repairing DEC VAX network to anearby distribution node (“Market Distributor” or “MD”) computer, whichtypically analyzes and distributes current market data by means ofdedicated permanent communication links to one or more associated MAN'sin a particular city (or other local region), and which may also provideadministrative functions for the communication network. Although notconsidered critical to the present invention, a group of MD's ispreferably supplemented by a common Trading Region processing node(“Arbitrator Node” or “ARB”), with the ARB performing those functions(such as identifying potential matches between Buyers and Sellers, andother aspects of the “Deal Matching” process that require coordinationwith more than one client site) which make the most efficient use of thecommunication network if done centrally or regionally, while the MD'sperform those functions (such as generation of separate Dealable priceinformation for each individual client site) which are readilyimplemented in parallel in a distributed processing network and whichmake most efficient use of the communication if done locally or in closeproximity to the individual client sites.

[0029] In that regard, it is preferable to have more than one ARB, witheach ARB having primary responsibility for trades initiated by MarketMakers in the ARB's own Trading Region, and being connected to all theMAN's and MD's of that Trading Region as well as to the other ARB's inother Trading Regions by permanent dedicated links of the communicationnetwork. In the majority of deals, it is anticipated that both the Makerand the Taker will be within the same Trading Region and thus will bedirectly linked to the same ARB which can therefore identify a potentialmatch and coordinate its final execution without any communication withthe other ARB's; at the same time, the other ARB's can simultaneously beprocessing deals related to other traders in other regions. Connectingthe various ARB's with one another by dedicated permanent communicationlinks not only facilitates deals with a Taker in a remote Trading Regionwho does not normally have any direct link to the Maker's ARB, but alsoprovides an efficient communication network for broadcasting pricequotes to all the traders in other Trading Regions. Preferably, thevarious MD's, MAN's and ARB's are each provided with a local backupalready connected to the communication network in accordance with theteachings of the commonly assigned US patent application entitled“ACTIVATION OF A DORMANT SIBLING COMPUTER IN A COMMUNICATION NETWORK”and filed Nov. 9, 1990 under Ser. No. 07/612,0451; however, it is alsopossible, albeit wasteful of communication resources, to establishtemporary communication links between the MAN's and MD's of one tradingarea and an ARB in a remote trading area, so that the remote ARB canfunction as an emergency backup for the local ARB. In any event, thesystem is preferably provided with a self-test and re-initializationcapability to detect discrepancies between the local data basesmaintained at each of the local (MD) and regional (ARB) processingnodes, and to regenerate missing or questionable data from correspondingdata stored at other nodes.

[0030] Whether the communication links between nodes are permanent(maintained indefinitely between two network components) or temporary(established dynamically for a short period of time) they are preferably“logical links” which have the property that messages sent in a certainorder over the same logical link are guaranteed to reach theirdestination in the same order. Moreover, the communication network ispreferably provided with sufficient error detection, error correction,and network self-repair capability to guarantee that messages sent viathese logical links are error free.

[0031] In summary, each MAN is connected to other MAN's by a robustcommunication network which connects the various Trading Floors andwhich supplements the MAN's with a number of processing nodes(preferably in the form of MD's and ARB's) to facilitate thedistribution of price quotations and other market data and to executetransactions by matching eligible Market Makers with eligible Buyers andSellers and by monitoring the transactions until they have beencompleted or aborted, with the MAN's being responsible for Trading Floorspecific tasks such as logging the completed transaction and updatingthe credit limit that was previously available to the counterpartyTrading Floor.

[0032] The structure and function of the trader WS's, MAN's, MD's, andARB's will now be described in detail, with particular emphasis on howthey cooperate to distribute price quotes (bids and offers) from aMarket Maker to potential Takers throughout the system. In the priorart, such quotes were made available to the individual traders merely inthe form of one or more public best prices for each currency pair (orother financial instrument type) then being offered by any Market Maker,without regard for any confidential credit restrictions imposed by theMaker or by the potential Taker that may prevent any deal beingconsummated. However, in accordance with the present invention, eachtrader receives a private Dealable price, which the system hasprescreened for the absence of any credit restrictions that wouldprevent the trader on whose WS the Dealable price is displayed fromdealing with an anonymous Market Maker from whom the displayed priceoriginates.

[0033] As shown in FIGS. 2 through 4, each WS supports a single tradertrading in a single currency pair, and its display thus provides one ortwo panels containing only information which a typical trader wouldconsider essential to trading in that currency pair by means of ananonymous brokerage system. However, the blank portion of the WS displaycould obviously be used for other data related to another currency pairand/or another type of transaction. Furthermore, the displayed panelcould be a window within a larger display that also displays data fromother information distribution and transaction processing systems.

[0034]FIG. 2 shows the trader's Buy/Sell display panel 10 which providesthe primary interface between the electronic brokerage system and theindividual traders. At the top of the display appears the currency pair12 (as shown, the Base Currency is United States dollars, Local Currencyis German marks), and at the top right, the “Value Date” 14 (the date onwhich any resultant trade is scheduled for payment). The next linecomprises (from left to right): the “Figure” (the most significant threeor four digits) 16 of the “Sell” (“bid”) price, conventionally expressedin units of Local Currency (eg, DM 1.72) per single unit of BaseCurrency (eg, US $1.00); two additional digits 24,26 (commonly referredto as “Pips”) which respectively reflect the remaining two or threeleast significant digits of the displayed “Best” bid and offer prices(ie, the best price at which at least one anonymous Market Maker iswilling to buy the Local Currency, and the best price at which at leastone anonymous Market Maker is willing to sell the Local Currency); andthe “Figure” 22 of the “Best” offer price.

[0035] A Market Maker will always want to purchase a commodity at alower price than the price at which he is willing to sell the samecommodity and his bid price will thus be less than his offer price.Moreover, the trading system is preferably able to “automatch” a bidprice from one Maker with an equal or lower offer price from anotherMaker, assuming that the two Makers have sufficient credit with eachother. Accordingly, the displayed “Best price” 18,20 will normallyreflect a price spread in which the offer price is equal to or higherthan the bid price; however at times it may reflect an “ArbitrageOpportunity” in which a third party having credit with the two Makers isable to buy at a lower offer price from one Maker and sell at a higherbid price to the other Maker.

[0036] Furthermore, there is no requirement that a Market Maker mustalways quote both a bid price and an offer price for the same quantityof the Local Currency, or that if a bid (or offer) price is accepted bya Seller (or Buyer), any corresponding offer (or bid) price from thatMaker will be (preferably at the trader's option) automaticallywithdrawn. Thus it is also possible that an offer price but no bid price(or vice versa) will be displayed as the Best price 18,20 at the top ofthe display.

[0037] As presently contemplated, the displayed Best bid and offerprices 18,20 are each valid for at least a predetermined quantity ofcurrency (for example five million US dollars) from a single source.Since such a quantity may be available at the displayed price in acomposite transaction involving more than one Maker and more than oneprice, it is possible that at least a portion of the transaction couldbe executed at a better price than the displayed Best price 18,20.

[0038] In accordance with the invention, a “Dealable” bid and/or offerprice is derived only from those bids or offers from other TradingFloors which have been prescreened for at least some nominal level ofremaining credit from the potential Maker to the potential Taker andvice versa, and at least the “Pips” 24,26 portion of the Dealable priceis prominently displayed or otherwise communicated to the potentialTaker.

[0039] In the illustrated example, the associated Taker (and any otherUSD/DEM traders on his Trading Floor) is thus eligible to sell Germanmarks (“DEM”) at the bid rate of 1.7210 marks per dollar (“USD”), or tobuy at the offer rate of 1.7217 marks per dollar, and the system hasalready verified that the displayed Dealable price 24,26 is currentlyavailable from one or more anonymous Makers with whom the trader iscurrently still eligible to deal, and that those eligible Makers arewilling (either collectively or individually, depending on the traderpreferences and/or design tradeoffs mentioned previously) to sell (orbuy) at least the same predetermined minimum quantity of the particularLocal Currency involved as was used to determine the displayed Bestprice 18,20. Thus, a “regular” displayed Dealable price 24,26 will neverbe better than the displayed Best price 18,20; if worse than the Bestprice 18,20, this is an indication that the trader is barred by creditlimitations from obtaining the best price that is then theoreticallyavailable. Indeed, because credit is established bilaterally, it ispossible that the Maker (or Makers) behind the Best price have extendedcredit only to Trading Floors who currently have not extended any creditto those particular Makers, and thus that none of the traders at any ofthe client sites will see a Dealable price equal to the displayed Bestprice.

[0040] The foregoing implicitly assumes that the Best price 18, 20 andthe Dealable price 24,26 are sufficiently close that the FIGS. 16, 22are unaffected. If that is not the case, it is preferable that thedisplayed Figures correspond to the corresponding most significantdigits of the displayed Dealable prices; if the “Pips” of the Best priceare worse than the corresponding least significant digits of a displayedDealable price, it will be apparent that the corresponding Figure of theDealable price should be incremented or decremented by at least onedigit to obtain the Best price.

[0041] Moreover, as with the Best price, it is possible that at least asmall quantity is available from one or more Makers at a better pricethan that which is currently displayed as a regular Dealable price (oreven that a better price becomes available after the price is displayedbut before the Taker's Buy or Sell request is processed), in which casethe trader may receive or pay an effective average price that issomewhat better than the currently displayed Dealable price. This willbe the case whether the system has executed a single transaction onlywith a second Maker with whom the better price originated, or acomposite transaction with that second Maker and the Maker with whom thedisplayed price originated.

[0042] Instead of a regular Dealable price, a Small price may bedisplayed, preferably identified as such (for example, by the letter“S”) 28 and which differs from the regular Dealable price in that only arelatively small quantity is collectively available at any price fromthose Makers with whom the trader currently is eligible to deal. Forexample, if deal size is expressed in units of one million dollars, theBest price and the regular Dealable price may each represent availabledeals having a potential aggregate value (not necessarily all from thesame trader) of at least 5 million dollars, while a Small price 14represents available deals having a maximum potential value of between 1and 4 million dollars.

[0043] Among the options available to each trader through his TraderProfile panel (see FIG. 4) is the ability to display either the regularDealable price as described above, which is good for at least thepreviously mentioned predetermined minimum quantity (eg, at least 5million dollars), or a best Dealable price which is the best priceavailable to that trader for even a nominal minimum quantity (eg, only 1million dollars).

[0044] Preferably, the trader has also previously specified a defaulttransaction quantity using his Trader Profile Screen and the displayedDealable price functions as the default value for the trader's requestedtransaction price. Thus, the trader may quickly and accurately respondto a new Dealable bid or offer price by merely activating a Buy button34 or a Sell button 36, respectively on the screen, assuming that thedisplay is touch sensitive or is provided with a “mouse” or otherpointing device; alternatively the trader may use a small custom keypadhaving dedicated function keys for the various functions and dedicatedsize keys for various predetermined deal sizes as well as conventionalnumerical, tab and cursor keys. If the desired quantity 30, 32 is notavailable at the displayed Dealable price, as will be discussed in moredetail with respect to FIGS. 3 and 4, any missed quantity may be thesubject of a subsequent “working the balance” bid or offer.

[0045] In any event, the system gives the trader accepting a Dealableprice the benefit of any undisplayed Small price from an eligiblecounterparty that is “behind” (ie, equal to or better than) the Dealableprice. In that case, the Buy or Sell request would be executed as twotrades, one at the undisplayed Small price, and the other at thedisplayed Dealable price.

[0046] As noted previously, the trading is performed electronically, andwhen a bid price is equal to or greater than an offer price, the twowill normally be automatically matched, with the system automaticallyallocating any price difference between the two trader's in accordancewith previously agreed trading rules. Thus it is not likely that adisplayed bid price 18,24 will be greater than a displayed offer price20,26. However, if two traders are barred from dealing with each otherbecause of credit limit restrictions but are both free to deal with athird trader, it is still possible that the third trader will bepresented with an arbitrage opportunity.

[0047] When the Dealable price 24,26 originates with the trader himself(or another trader on the same Floor), the trader is preferably alertedto that fact by displaying his price as the Dealable price, but in avisually distinctive manner and with the corresponding Buy or Sellfunction 34, 36 optionally inhibited. Thus, his Trading Floor may beprevented from in effect dealing with or against itself.

[0048] In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the displayedprice data may optionally be “vocalized”: whenever there is a change inthe displayed prices, the numerical data is electronically converted totext which in turn is converted to digital speech using conventionalspeech synthesis circuitry. In that event, it is preferable that onlythe “Pips” of the “Dealable” price quotes are announced (unless, due toa large spread, this would result in an ambiguous price), so that thetrader will not be assaulted with nonessential information. Thus, thevocalized information will normally include only the least significantdigits (Pips) of the displayed Dealable bid and offer prices, as well asstatus changes for any recent quotes or hits initiated by the trader. Anexemplary trading scenario and the resultant vocalized communications ispresented in Table 1. TABLE 1 Trader Action Broadcast Maker only Takeronly Dealer Price has Bid 10-17 and offer Bid size only 10 bid Bid sizesmall 10-17 Small Bid Offer side only 17 Offered Offer size small 10-17Small Offer Bid and Offer Small 10-17 in Small Bid/Offer Pips = “00”FIG. Bid = Offer 10 Choice No Bid/Offer available Dollar/Mark pleaseDealable Bid/Offer Bid/Offer out removed Bid and Offer removed Off thePrice Price change for Bid Change and Offer (worse only) You enter aQuote Bid/Offer/Price Posted Your Quote is best 10-17 YourBid/Offer/Price Your Quote is Bettered 14 Bid/Offered inside by anotherTrader you You cancel Quote Bid/Offer/Price cancelled Your Quote Joinedby Bid/Offer/Price joined another trader You Join a Quote from You jointhe another trader Bid/Offer/Price Your Quote is no Your Bid/Offer/pricelonger Joined only Bid/Offer/Price you Still watching your joined hit,but yours Bid/Offer/Price available Your Bid is hit 10 Given (Small) 10yours from Bank X You sell 10 to Bank Y Your Offer is Taken 17 Paid(Small) You Sell 10 to Bank X You buy 10 from Bank Y Your quote ispartially Working Your Balance dealt on of X Maker's Quote not Hit Stillworking your for a period of time Bid/Offer/Price Taker's Attempt to hita Missed it Bid or Offer failed (too slow) Taker's Buy/Sell missedWorking your Balance of X

[0049]FIG. 3 shows how the display is transformed when the trader is notcontent to assume a passive role in which he merely reacts to dealssolicited by other traders, but rather wishes to assume for himself therole of a Market Maker. In that case, a Maker's “Quote” panel 40 appearsbelow the Taker's “Buy/Sell” panel 10 of FIG. 2, so that the trader mayact both as a Maker and as a Taker, using a pointing device or adesignated key of an alphanumeric keyboard to move between the twopanels. The FIGS. 42, 44 and Pips 46, 48 have the same function as inthe Taker's panel, and take their respective initial values from thecurrent Best price. As in FIG. 2, the bid information is on the left,while the offer information is on the right.

[0050] Immediately below the price information, the trader is presentedwith the relevant bid and offer quantities 48,50, conventionallyexpressed in millions of US dollars. When the Maker's panel firstappears, these quantities assume default values (10,10) established bythe trader's personal trading profile. The trader is able to change any“Pips” or “quantity” amount shown on the Maker's panel by means of anumerical keyboard, using the enter key to move from field to field.Alternately, changes in the numerical data could be entered by selectingthe field with a mouse or other pointing device, with a single clickindicating an upward increment of one Pip and a double click indicatinga downward increment of one Pip. Once the trader has changed thedisplayed numerical information to his satisfaction, he may then send adouble sided bid/offer quote message (QuoteSubmit, FIG. 5) either byactivating Send button 52 with a mouse or a conventional tab key andenter key, or by using a dedicated Send key on the trader's keyboard(not shown). Optionally, the trader may also send a single-side bid oroffer, using the Bid button 54 or Offer button 56 instead of the Sendbutton 52. Once the quote has been transmitted, an optional timer (notshown) may provide a visible and/or audible indication that apredetermined exposure time has elapsed. In addition, the trader mayspecify in his Trader Profile panel (FIG. 4) an optional automatic quoteinterrupt, whereby the quote is withdrawn once a predetermined maximumexposure time has been reached. At any time, the trader may use the Offbutton 60 to withdraw his current quote, whereupon he may compose andsend a new quote.

[0051] Preferably, as will be discussed in additional detail withrespect to FIG. 7, at the same time the system uses the quote and anyassociated credit prescreening information to determine the dealableprices to be displayed at each potential counterparty, the system alsodetermines whether the current quote is equal to the Dealable price(either Best Dealable or Regular Dealable) available to any potentialcounterparty with whom bilateral credit currently exists, and if so,alerts the quoter that the displayed price has priority in time over anyother available quote for that deal size (regular or small) from othertrading floors and is subject to immediately being hit/taken (a “RedDealable” quote, preferably indicated by red background) or is equal tosuch a Red Dealable (regular or small) quote from another trading floor(a “Joined” quote, preferably indicated by a =sign and a yellowbackground).

[0052] As shown in FIG. 4, each trader can call up a “Trader Profile”screen 70 to select his current trading currency 72, and also toestablish or modify his personal default values for normal and maximumtrading size 74, 76 and price time limit 78, and his preferencesregarding optional automated trading protocols 78, such as canceling aquoted price that has been partially dealt (only a portion of theavailable size was matched with a qualified counterparty) or bettered(is not equal to the Best Dealable price for that size that is currentlyavailable to any potential counterparty with whom bilateral credit stillexists). As noted previously, the trader may also elect to display theRegular 80 or Best 82 Dealable price, and the system also provides thetrader with various options 82 for automatically “working the balance”in the event the trader attempts to buy or sell a particular quantity atthe displayed Dealable price but misses the deal in whole (“complete”)or in part (“partial”). Depending upon the particular option selected,the system automatically generates and transmits a bid at the lastDealable offer price if the trader was not able to buy the full quantitydesired, for a quantity equal to the difference between the desiredquantity and the quantity actually traded.

[0053] In addition, a Floor Administrator (preferably for internalsecurity reasons a bank employee free of any trading responsibilities)has his own WS with a Floor Profile screen (not shown) which includes anoption to prevent his own traders from trading with each other, and amaximum Business Day Credit Limit for each eligible counterparty whichrepresents the maximum cumulative value of trades that may be executedby all traders of the Trading Floor with the designated counterparty.Alternately, the system could combine transactions from related TradingFloors, in which case the Floor Profile could merely identify a commoncredit facility having a single credit limit for each Trading Floor orgroups of Trading Floors. The Floor Administrator also selects a warningpercentage which the system uses to broadcast a warning message to theAdministrator and all the traders on a given Floor that a particularcounterparty has utilized a specified percentage of its availablecredit, in which case the traders may wish to alter their tradingstrategies and/or the Floor Administrator may choose to raise theapplicable credit limit.

[0054]FIG. 5 shows the flow of electronic messages relating to thedistribution of customized Dealable price information to each TradingFloor. The trader at WS A1 a 1 of Trading Floor A1 a uses his PriceQuotation (Market Maker) Panel (FIG. 3) to generate a QuoteSubmitmessage to the Trading Floor's MAN (MAN A1 a) in the form of a bid tobuy at 1.7215 and an offer to sell at 1.7216. The MAN in turn logs theQuoteSubmit as two open quotations (one, if a single-sided quote) andforwards the QuoteSubmit message to the Maker's Arbitrator Node (ARB A)whose assigned geographical Trading Region includes the Maker's TradingFloor A1 a 1. In turn, ARB A updates an ordered list of available bidsand an ordered list of available offers for the relevant currency pair,each ranked by price and time of receipt (preferably at the Maker'sARB), and containing data fields for indicating the Quantity (preferablyexpressed in Base Currency units) of the Local Currency still availablefor purchase or sale, and the Quantity reserved by the Arbitratorpending completion or failure of a pending deal resulting from apotential match initiated by the arbitrator and not yet confirmed by theMaker and Taker. A corresponding QuoteAvailable message is thentransmitted from the Maker's ARB A to the MD's in its Trading Region MDA1, MD A2, and to the other ARB's for eventual distribution to the MD'sand MAN's of other Trading Regions.

[0055] Each MAN (for example, MAN A1 b) also transmits a CreditUpdatemessage to its associated ARB (ARB A) whenever the credit status for anyof its potential counterparties (for example, A1 a or A2 a) changes fromCreditAvailable to CreditNotAvailable or vice versa, which the ARB thenretransmits to its affected MD's and to the other affected ARB's.

[0056] The MD's then use the information in the received CreditUpdatemessages to maintain a Preauthorization Matrix PM such as that shown inFIG. 6. The rows and columns of the matrix PM are associated with thevarious Trading Floors A1 a, A1 b, A2 a, etc (including any Floors inother Trading Regions) and for each ordered pair of Trading Floors{TF_(i),TF_(j)} contains an indication as to whether TF_(i), hasextended any credit to TF_(j). In the depicted example, credit exists ona bilateral basis between TFA1 and TFA2, no credit exists between TFA1and TFB1, and credit has been extended unilaterally from TFA2 to TFB1,but not vice versa (as indicated by the “1” at the intersection of rowTFB1 with column TFA2 and the “0” at the corresponding intersection ofcolumn TFB1 with row TFA2). From the main diagonal of the matrix it canbe seen that only TFA2 permits its own traders to trade betweenthemselves, as indicated by the “1” at the intersection of row TFA2 withcolumn TFA2. Preferably, each MD only maintains a partialPreauthorization Matrix containing data only regarding credit extendedfrom or to its associated MAN's to the other potential counterparties(MAN's) in the system. Thus, as indicated in FIG. 6 by cross hatching,some of the matrix entries may be blank.

[0057] The MD's use the QuoteAvailable messages to update their ownordered lists of available bids and offers; these ordered lists and theabove-described Preauthorization Matrix are then used by the MD tocalculate separate Dealable prices for each Trading Floor which aretransmitted as MarketView messages to the affected MAN's, as will bedescribed in more detail hereinafter with reference to FIG. 7. Inaddition, the MD's and/or ARB's use a similar procedure to identifywhich quotes from which Trading Floors are “Red Dealable” or “Joined” or“Bettered”: A quote is “Red Dealable” only if it is the basis (best inprice and time of the bids or offers originating from Trading Floorswith which bilateral credit is still available) for a “Dealable” pricedisplayed at one or more Trading Floors; once the “Red Dealable” quoteshave been identified, the other quotes may be readily categorized aseither “Joined” (if not first in time) or “Bettered” (if not best inprice).

[0058] The actual deal is executed using a known two-stage commitmentlogging process (not shown) in which DealVerify and DealVerifyOkmessages are logged by and transmitted from the Maker's MAN to theTaker's MAN and vice versa, after each MAN has verified that the otherparty to the deal has been extended sufficient credit by the Man'sassociated Trading Floor to cover the full deal quantity (otherwise thedeal is aborted or is cut back in quantity). As an additionalprecaution, the Maker's MAN also checks that the quote has not beeninterrupted and that the WS from which the quote originated is stillon-line, before any DealVerify or DealVerifyOk message is transmitted tothe other Trading Floor (equivalently, each WS involved could performits own logging and communicate directly with the other WS; however,this would complicate any subsequent automated deal recovery orrollback). A suitable logging, verification, and recovery/rollbackprocess is disclosed in further detail in the commonly assigned U.S.patent application filed on Nov. 2, 1990 under Ser. No. 07/608,643 andentitled “FINANCIAL EXCHANGE SYSTEM HAVING AUTOMATED RECOVERY/ROLLBACKOF UNACKNOWLEDGED ORDERS”. In any event, it should be understood thateach ARB also maintains a log of potential matches which have not yetbeen verified or canceled by the affected MAN's, and that if thesepotential matches are not resolved within a predetermined time period, asimilar automated rollback/recovery process can update the ARB's log onthe basis of the logs maintained by the affected MAN's (for example, thematch may be automatically canceled (rolled back) if either MAN does nothave a corresponding entry in its respective log).

[0059]FIG. 7 sets forth a possible implementation of how the MD computesa Dealable bid for a particular currency currently available to aparticular Trading Floor, which may then be transmitted in the form of aMarketView message to that Trading Floor. Preferably, in order to avoidthe transmission of redundant information and consequent excessiveloading of the communication network, these MarketView messages aretransmitted to a particular MAN only in response to a change in theDealable price for the associated Trading Floor. Moreover, it may bemore efficient to transmit information only for those active currencypairs which the Trading Floor's MAN has previously identified to its MDin an ActiveCurrencyPair message.

[0060] As indicated symbolically in FIG. 7 at block 100, the MD firstselects the particular Trading Floor and Currency Pair for which theDealable bid and offer price is to be computed (FIG. 7 shows only thecomputation of the Dealable bid price; a similar computation is thenperformed for the Dealable offer price before a new Trading Floor and/orCurrency is selected). The MD then resets (block 102) the counters,registers and flags (i, P, Q, S) it will use in the computation of theDealable price P.

[0061] What follows is a loop controlled by counter i, which points tothe entries in the particular ordered Quote List associated with theCurrency Pair and transaction type (bid or offer) then being processed,and which is incremented at the beginning of the loop (block 104). Ifthe end of the Quote List has already been reached (Yes branch fromdecision block 106), the current values of the price P and theassociated Small flag S are transmitted to the Trading Floor TF,together with an indication of the current Currency Pair CP (aspreviously noted, no such transmission is required if the price andSmall flag for that Currency Pair to that Trading Floor are unchanged).However, if the end of the Quote List has not already been reached (Nobranch from decision block 106) the next quote is then read (block 110)and the relevant entries in the Preauthorization Matrix for the currentTrading Floor (TF) and the Maker of the current quote (Mi) are thenchecked to determine if any previously extended credit has already beenexhausted (decision blocks 112, 114). If either entry is “0” (indicatingno credit available) control passes to the beginning of the loop (block104), for processing of any remaining quotes in the applicable list.

[0062] However, if both relevant entries of the Preauthorization Matrixare “1” (indicating at least some credit is available on a bilateralbasis between the current Trading Floor TF and the Maker M_(i) fromwhich the current quote Q_(i) originated), the price Pi associated withquote Q_(i) is loaded into the price register P, and the associatedAvailable Quantity Q_(i) is added to the contents of the Quantityregister Q (block 116), which is then tested (decision block 118) todetermine if at least a predetermined minimum quantity (eg, 5) isavailable to the current Trading Floor TF; otherwise control passes tothe beginning of the loop (lock 102) and the process is repeated.

[0063] Assuming that the predetermined minimum quantity is available(Yes branch from block 118), the Small flag is reset to 0, and controlpasses to block 108, whereby the Dealable price is transmitted and theprocess is repeated.

[0064] It will be understood that the above assumes that a regulardealable price may be based on a potential composite deal which is basedonly on quotes for a small size of the currency in question and that asmall dealable price is to be displayed only if such a regular dealableprice is not available from any qualified counterparty or combination ofqualified counterparties; if as mentioned previously it is desired todisplay only regular dealable prices from a single source and/or to giveeach trader the option of displaying either the Best Dealable price orthe Regular Dealable price, then it may be necessary to scan theavailable quotes twice (once for the best available regular sized quote,once for the best available quote regardless of size) and/or to maintainseparate registers for Best and Regular sized prices.

[0065] By using more than one MD each in the form of a dedicatedcomputer, the computation of Dealable prices is distributed amongseveral computers and is free from interruption by other unrelatedtasks. Moreover, only a minimum amount of essential information istransmitted to the MD from its ARB, and from the MD to its MAN's. Thuseven in a fast moving market, it should be possible to provide currentDealable price information to each Trading Floor. However, if an MD isresponsible for distributing Dealable prices to more than two TradingFloors, it may be preferable to use a conventional pseudorandomgenerator to select the next Trading Floor, thus avoiding any biasinherent in the sequence in which the Dealable price information iscomputed and distributed.

[0066] As mentioned previously, the MD could, at the same time itreviews the ordered list of available quotes, also identify any quotewhich qualifies as “Red Dealable” or “Joined” and transmit acorresponding HitAlert message to the Maker's MAN (possibly via theTaker's ARB and the Maker's ARB). Alternatively, each ARB could repeatthe process of FIG. 7 for each Trading Floor in the entire tradingsystem, which would require more computational resources but fewercommunication resources. In particular, such an alternate embodiment, asshown in FIG. 5, would require at most only one HitAlert message foreach bid or offer (to the Maker's MAN from the Maker's own ARB).

What is claimed is:
 1. A computerized trading system for tradingfinancial instruments between traders at a plurality of trading floors,the system comprising: a plurality of trading floors; a centralizedquote distribution system which determines which pairs of trading floorsare credit bearing counter-parties which extend bilateral credit to oneanother, the centralized quote distribution system also sending dealableprice quotation messages to the trading floors, each trading floor beingsent dealable price quotation messages which have been prescreened forcredit and represent bids and/or offers that originate from one or morecredit bearing counter-parties of that trading floor; at least some ofthe trading floors having at least one maker screen and at least onetaker screen associated therewith: (a) the maker screen permitting atrader to send maker price quotation messages to the centralized quotedistribution system, the maker price quotation message indicating a bidprice at which the trader is willing to sell financial instrumentsand/or an offer price at which the trader is willing to buy financialinstruments; and (b) the taker screen permitting a trader to view andaccept dealable bids and/or offers indicated by the dealable pricequotation messages received from the centralized quote distributionsystem.
 2. A computerized trading system according to claim 1, whereinthe centralized quote distribution system determines which pairs oftrading floors are credit bearing counter-parties as a function ofunilateral credit information sent to it by the trading floors.
 3. Acomputerized trading system according to claim 2, wherein bilateralcredit is determined without any trading floor being able to identifywhich of the other trading floors has extended credit to it.
 4. Acomputerized trading system according to claim 3, wherein each of the atleast some of the trading floors have at least one floor profile screenwhich permits the trading floor to send unilateral credit messages tothe centralized quote distribution system.
 5. A computerized tradingsystem according to claim 1, wherein bilateral credit is determinedwithout any trading floor being able to identify which of the othertrading floors has extended credit to it.
 6. A computerized tradingsystem according to claim 1, wherein the centralized quote distributionsystem is a distributed system of computers.
 7. A computerized tradingsystem according to claim 6, wherein the centralized quote distributionsystem comprises a plurality of remotely located computers.
 8. Acomputerized trading system according to claim 1, wherein each of the atleast some of the trading floors includes one or more computer terminalsand wherein the maker screens and the taker screens are displayed on thecomputer terminals.
 9. A computerized trading system according to claim8, wherein at least one of the computer terminals is capable ofdisplaying both the maker screen and the taker screen.
 10. Acomputerized trading system according to claim 1, wherein thecentralized quote distribution system also sends market price quotationmessages to the trading floors indicating the best market bid and/orbest market offer which has been made by any of the trading floors andwherein at least one of the taker screens also displays the best marketbid and/or the best market offer indicated by the market price quotationmessages.
 11. A computerized trading system according to claim 10,wherein all of the trader screen displays the best market bid and/or thebest market offer indicated by the market price quotation messages. 12.A computerized trading system according to claim 1, wherein the dealableprice quotation messages sent to each respective trading floor indicatethe best dealable bid and/or offer made by one or more credit bearingcounter-parties of that trading floor.
 13. A computerized trading systemaccording to claim 12, wherein the centralized quote distribution systemalso sends market price quotation messages to the trading floorsindicating the best market bid and/or best market offer which has beenmade by any of the trading floors and wherein at least one of the takerscreens also display the best market bid and/or the best market offerindicated by the market price quotation messages.
 14. A computerizedtrading system according to claim 13, wherein all of the taker screensalso display the best market bid and/or offer indicated by the marketprice quotation messages.
 15. A computerized trading system according toclaim 13, wherein the at least one taker screen has a first area fordisplaying the best dealable bid and/or offer as indicated by thedealable price quotation messages and a second area for displaying thebest market bid and/or best market offer as indicated by the marketprice quotation messages.
 16. A computerized trading system according toclaim 15, wherein the first area displays the best dealable bid and/oroffer for a preset quantity of financial instruments.
 17. A computerizedtrading system according to claim 16, wherein the first area displaysthe best dealable bids and/or offers for any quantity of financialinstruments.
 18. A computerized trading system according to claim 1,wherein the centralized quote distribution system sends messages to thetrading floors informing a maker that his bid and/or offer is capable ofbeing accepted by a third party.
 19. A computerized trading systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the trader is given the option ofcanceling his bid and/or offer after he is informed that it can beaccepted.
 20. A computerized trading system according to claim 1,wherein the centralized quote distribution system informs a maker thathis bid and/or offer is as good as the best third party bid and/or offeravailable to a credit bearing counter-party, but is second in time tothe third party's bid and/or offer.
 21. A computerized trading systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the centralized quote distribution systemautomatically cancels a bid and/or offer made by a maker when it isbettered by a bid and/or offer of another trader.
 22. A computerizedtrading system according to claim 1, wherein the maker screen permitsthe maker to withdraw his bid and/or offer anytime before it isaccepted.
 23. A computerized trading system according to claim 1,wherein the centralized quote distribution system automaticallywithdraws any bid and/or offer made in a maker price quotation messageonce a predetermined condition is met.
 24. A computerized trading systemaccording to claim 23, wherein the predetermined condition is determinedat the trading floor from which the maker price quotation message wassent.
 25. A computerized trading system according to claim 23, whereinthe predetermined condition is the passage of a predetermined timeperiod.
 26. A computerized trading system according to claim 25, whereinthe predetermined time period is set at the trading floor from which themaker price quotation message was sent.
 27. A computerized tradingsystem according to claim 1, wherein the centralized quote distributionsystem prevents traders associated with the same trading floor fromtrading with one another.
 28. A computerized trading system according toclaim 1, wherein the centralized quote distribution system informs atrading floor when the amount of credit that trading floor is extendingto another trading floor falls below a predetermined value.
 29. Acomputerized trading system according to claim 28, wherein thepredetermined value is an absolute value.
 30. A computerized tradingsystem according to claim 28, wherein the predetermined value is apercentage of the original amount of credit extended to that othertrading floor on the trading day in question.
 31. A computerized tradingsystem according to claim 28, wherein the notification is sent to anadministrator for the trading floor.
 32. A computerized trading systemaccording to claim 31, wherein the administrator has a floor profilescreen at which he can adjust the credit limit being extended to anyother trading floor.
 33. A computerized trading system according toclaim 1, wherein each of the trading floors also has at least one floorprofile screen which permits the trading floor to specify an amount ofcredit it will extend to the other trading floors and transmits creditupdate messages to the centralized quote distribution system as afunction thereof.
 34. A computerized trading system according to claim33, wherein the credit update messages are sent as a function of boththe amount of credit extended to the other trading floors and the valueof trades that have occurred between the respective trading floors. 35.A computerized trading system according to claim 33, wherein thecentralized quote distribution system determines whether or not eachtrading floor is extending credit to the other trading floors as afunction of the credit update messages only.
 36. A computerized tradingsystem according to claim 35, wherein the centralized quote distributionsystem maintains a preauthorization matrix which indicates which tradingfloors are presently extending a predetermined minimum amount of creditto each of other.
 37. A computerized trading system according to claim36, wherein the centralized quote distribution system also maintains anordered list of bids and offers send by the various trading floors. 38.A computerized trading system according to claim 37, wherein thecentralized quote distribution system generates the dealable pricemessages as a function of the preauthorization matrix and the orderedlist.
 39. A computerized trading system according to claim 38, whereinthe ordered list is ordered as a function of price and time received.40. A computerized trading system according to claim 1, wherein thetrading floors include at least one trader profile screen which permitsthe trader to specify various defaults for his trading activities.
 41. Acomputerized trading system according to claim 40, wherein the makerprice quotation message also includes a quantity of financialinstruments being bid and/or offered and the defaults includeautomatically canceling a bid and/or offer made by the trader when onlya portion of the quantity of financial instruments being bid and/oroffer has been accepted by another trader.
 42. A computerized tradingsystem according to claim 40, wherein the defaults include automaticallycanceling any bid and/or offer made by a maker when that bid or offer isno longer the best bid and/or offer available to at least one trader ona trading floor that is a credit bearing counter-party to that maker.43. A computerized trading system according to claim 1, wherein eachtrading floor comprises: at least one trader terminal; and a marketaccess node through which each trader terminal communicates with thecentralized quote distribution system.
 44. A computerized trading systemaccording to claim 43, wherein the maker screens and the taker screensare displayed on the trader terminals.
 45. A computerized trading systemfor trading financial instruments between traders at a plurality oftrading floors, the system comprising: a plurality of trading floors,each trading floor sending unilateral credit information to acentralized quote distribution system indicating whether that tradingfloor is extending unilateral credit to other trading floors; at leastsome of the trading floors having at least one maker screen and at leastone taker screen associated therewith: (a) the maker screen permitting atrader to send maker price quotation messages to the centralized quotedistribution system, the maker price quotation message indicating a bidprice at which the trader is willing to sell financial instrumentsand/or an offer price at which the trader is willing to buy financialinstruments; and (b) the taker screen permitting a trader to view andaccept dealable price quotation messages received from the centralizedquote distribution system; and the centralized quote distribution systemdetermining which pairs of trading floors are credit bearingcounter-parties which extend bilateral credit to one another as afunction of the unilateral credit information, the centralized quotedistribution system also sending dealable price quotation messages,prescreened for credit, to each trading floor indicating the bestavailable bid and/or offer that originates from one or more creditbearing counter-parties of that trading floor.
 46. A method of tradingfinancial instruments between traders at a plurality of trading floors,the method comprising: sending maker price quotation messages fromtraders at the trading floors to a centralized quote distributionsystem, the maker price quotation messages indicating a bid price atwhich the trader is willing to sell financial instruments and/or anoffer price at which the trader is willing to buy financial instruments;determining, at the centralized quote distribution system, which pairsof trading floors are credit bearing counter-parties which extendbilateral credit to one another and sending dealable price quotationmessages from the centralized quote distribution system to the tradingfloors as a function thereof, each trading floor being sent dealableprice quotation messages indicating bids and/or offers that originatefrom one or more credit bearing counter-parties of that trading floor;and accepting, at at least some of the trading floors, dealable pricequotation messages received by that trading floor from the centralizedquote distribution system.
 47. A computerized trading system for tradingof financial instruments between traders at a plurality of tradingfloors, the system comprising: a centralized quote distribution systemwhich determines which pairs of trading floors have bilateral creditwith each other and identifies such pairs of trading floors as creditbearing counter-parties, the centralized quote distribution system alsosending information to the trading floors as a function thereof; aplurality of trading floors, each of the trading floors being associatedwith at least one; (a) maker screen at which a trader can send makerprice quotation messages to the centralized quote distribution system,the price quotation message indicating a bid price at which the traderis willing to sell financial instruments and/or an offer price at whichthe trader is willing to buy financial instruments; and (b) taker screenat which a trader can view and accept dealable price quotation messagesindicating bids and/or offers that originate from one or more creditbearing counterparties.
 48. A computerized trading system for trading offinancial instruments between traders at a plurality of trading floors,the system comprising: a centralized quote distribution system; aplurality trading floors, at least a plurality of the trading floorsincluding at least one; (a) maker screen at which a trader can sendmaker price quotation messages to the centralized quote distributionsystem, the price quotation message indicating a bid price at which thetrader is willing to sell financial instruments and/or an offer price atwhich the trader is willing to buy financial instruments; and (b) takerscreen at which a trader can view dealable price quotation messagesreceived from the centralized quote distribution system and accept adealable bid and/or offer displayed on the taker screen; the centralizedquote distribution system determining which pairs of trading floors havebilateral credit and sending information to the trading floors as afunction thereof; each of the trading floors displaying dealable pricequotation messages on its taker trading screens which indicate whichbids and/or offers it can accept as a function of whether or not the bidand/or offer originates from one or more trading floors with which ithas bilateral credit as determined by the centralized quote distributionsystem.
 49. A computerized trading system for trading financialinstruments between traders at a plurality of trading floors, the systemcomprising: a plurality of trading floors; at least some of the tradingfloors having at least one maker screen associated therewith, the makerscreen permitting the trader to send bids and/or offers to the othertrading floors via a centralized quote distribution system; thecentralized quote distribution system informing the trading floors whena bid and/or offer sent by one of its makers is the best bid and/oroffer capable of being accepted by another trader on the trading system;and the taker screen informing the maker of the bid and/or offer thathis bid and/or offer is capable of being accepted.
 50. A method fortrading financial instruments between traders at a plurality of tradingfloors connected together by a computerized trading system, the methodcomprising: determining which pairs of trading floors are credit bearingcounter-parties which extend bilateral credit to one another without anytrading floor knowing which of the other trading floors are currentlyextending credit to it; sending maker price quotation messages to thecomputerized trading system from individual trading floors, each makerprice quotation message indicating a bid and/or offer price at which amaker is willing to buy and/or sell financial instruments to otheranonymous traders having bilateral credit with the trading floor withwhich the maker is associated; displaying at each trading floor the bestbid and/or offer that originates from one or more credit bearingcounter-parties of that trading floor and permitting a trader to acceptsuch best bid and/or offer, and that has been prescreened for credit.51. The method of claim 50, further including displaying at each tradingfloor the best bid and/of offer made by any maker irrespective ofwhether or not that maker is associated with a trading floor with whichthe trading floor in question has bilateral credit.
 52. A method fortrading financial instruments between traders at a plurality of tradingfloors that are in electronic communication with a computerized tradingsystem, said method comprising: sending maker quotation messages to thecomputerized trading system from individual trading floors, each makerquotation message indicating a bid to buy and/or offer to sell afinancial instrument to other traders; automatically prescreening makerquotation messages to determine whether credit preferences are met forboth the maker and a prospective recipient of said maker quotationmessage located on another trading floor, said prescreening beingconducted without any trading floor being informed of the creditpreferences of any other identified trading floor; displaying saidprescreened maker quotation message to said recipient in a manner whichindicates whether or not the credit preferences of both the maker andthe recipient were met when said prescreen was conducted; and permittingsaid recipient to accept the bid and/or offer of said maker quotationmessage when said message is displayed in a manner indicating that theprescreen had determined that credit preferences of both maker andrecipient were met.
 53. A method for trading financial instrumentsbetween traders at a plurality of trading floors that are in electroniccommunication with a computerized trading system, said methodcomprising: sending maker quotation messages to the computerized tradingsystem from individual trading floors, each maker quotation messageindicating a bid to buy and/or offer to sell a financial instrument toother traders; automatically prescreening maker quotation messages todetermine whether credit preferences are met for both the maker and aprospective recipient of said maker quotation message located on anothertrading floor, said prescreening being conducted without any tradingfloor being informed of the credit preferences of any other identifiedtrading floor; displaying said prescreened maker quotation message tosaid recipient in a manner which indicates whether or not the creditpreferences of both the maker and the recipient were met when saidprescreen was conducted.
 54. A system for trading financial instrumentsbetween traders at a plurality of trading floors that are in electroniccommunication with each other, said system comprising a series ofcomputers, input devices and display devices which cooperate to: permittraders to send maker quotation messages to the computerized tradingsystem from individual trading floors, each maker quotation messageindicating a bid to buy and/or offer to sell a financial instrument toother traders; automatically prescreen maker quotation messages todetermine whether credit preferences are met for both the maker and aprospective recipient of said maker quotation message located at anothertrading floor, said prescreening being conducted without any tradingfloor being informed of the credit preferences of any other identifiedtrading floor; display said prescreened maker quotation message to saidrecipient in a manner which indicates whether or not the creditpreferences of both the maker and the recipient were met when saidprescreen was conducted; and permit said recipient to accept the bidand/or offer of said maker quotation message, when said message isdisplayed in a manner indicating that the prescreen had determined thatcredit preferences of both maker and recipient were met.
 55. A systemfor trading financial instruments between traders at a plurality oftrading floors that are in electronic communication with each other,said system comprising a series of computers, input devices and displaydevices which cooperate to: permit traders to send maker quotationmessages to the computerized trading system from individual tradingfloors, each maker quotation message indicating a bid to buy and/oroffer to sell a financial instrument to other traders; automaticallyprescreen maker quotation messages to determine whether creditpreferences are met for both the maker and a prospective recipient ofsaid maker quotation message located at another trading floor, saidprescreening being conducted without any trading floor being informed ofthe credit preferences of any other identified trading floor; displaysaid prescreened maker quotation message to said recipient in a mannerwhich indicates whether or not the credit preferences of both the makerand the recipient were met when said prescreen was conducted.